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Edith's Streets

This blog records notes about London (and Greater London) streets - what the buildings are, what the background is. These pages have been compiled over many years and from many sources - its not intended to copy from other people's work.Each post represents a square on the Ordnance Survey grid -and the vast majority of information is culled from map based source material - Ordnance Survey, A/Z, etc.

On some inner city squares only a quarter of each square is done because of the volume of material involved

Please add your comments and corrections - I am sure there are lots of mistakes - and my idea is to build up a correct record interactively

Red- it is (hopefully) there nowBlue - its interesting but its goneNo colour, same as the text - don't know. needs to be verified

Thames Tributary - Cray flowing to Darent. St.Pauls Cray

Barnfield Road7 A shaft opened on land behind the house in July 1985. The site had been used as a rubbish tip for the previous 40 years. This shaft had opened up -periodically and been refilled with domestic and other rubbish. The shaft was fenced off for safety with a notice 'Danger-Mine Workings'. In July 1985 the Fire Brigade was called to a fire in the shaft and their water caused the shaft to open showing a 10m deep circular hole opening into four chambers

High Street5-9 50 early shops, 17th timber frame building.53-69 was Stangers' Stores71 Black Boy. First stop out of London for the coaching inns.Police Station. 1896 a typically robust brick and stone building, The Main police station transferred to the Walnuts Precinct in Orpington, and a new station was provided nearer the viaduct.Blue Anchor. Converted to housing 1988.New houses built on the old pub car park. It was once the local animal pound and nearby a forest of posts and traffic signsSydney Cottages. Coronet of Lord Sydney of Chislehurst on a tablet. 19th terrace. Sydney, Australia, is named after Thomas Townshend, Baron Sydney, who was Secretary of State in 1787.5-9 Survey House. Parts of the property may be a 16th Wealden house with jettied front. Inside is a crown post truss. It was damaged by fire in 1996. ListedLabour Party Rooms used to be the Co-op. turn-of-the-century shop fronts27 Old Star. Not as old as the name might suggest; Typical of it period.29-35 Vann's drapers, some old shop front details. In 1998 became a doctors' surgery.34 former scrap yard site. This once had a yellow brick chimney c. 1850, which was part of a blacksmith's forge.40-50 Mary Rose, 17th timber-framed building. In the early 19th, this was used as a Congregational Chapel and one gothic shaped window was put in for this. Later converted to shops and flats and later to a restaurant -. It includes the ghost of a lady with 'coal black eyes'. Listed.” During the works a brass token with the name and image of Thomas Attwood, the political reformer was found.66-70 a mixed group of 19th century shops restoredVillage sign. The St. Mary Cray sign in the centre of the green was made from reclaimed oak timbers marks the 21st. anniversary year of the local amenity societyBlack Boy pub. This was once the leading hotel and dates from the 17th. Trade tokens with the name of Ann Manning have been found here.London Plane tree planted opposite the Black Boy was blown down in the Great Storm of 1987, but a replacement tree has been planted.83 Durley House. The surviving half of a larger property. Grade II listed. Adapted to office accommodation with the Loss of a picket fence, and the presence of parked cars on the forecourt. . It is an early 18th building of red brick87-91 timber-framed building. Listed95-97 this was Strouts the Butchers, with a slaughterhouse behind. Later, it was used by a greengrocer and later a builder.

Railway viaduct built in 1858 to carry the line between Chatham and London. It has nine brick arches and concrete sections show where the bridge was widened in 1959 to carry four tracks. There is a Chalk cutting to the east 80' deep. To the north are 2 brick viaducts from 1858. The older side leans because of the braking of the trains.
Market Meadow. The only reminder of the 16th and early 17th site of the original market. Built over by "Vogue Interiors". Annual Market Fair. An annual fair was held here on the Feast of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is a right noted in Charter Rolls of 1281Terrace 19thFire Engine House of 1899.Manor Farm, gone

Millbrook Road
The road is built on the line of the mill leat for the Joynson Mill. Built in 1974.The leat was known locally as the Iron River.

Nugent Industrial Estate. Just west of the parish church was the W.Joynson Paper Mill of 1850. This was a corn mill which stood near St. Mary Cray church. It was replaced by a paper mill, then a paper factory and in recent years by a warehouse complex. In 1787 it was run by Henry Brightly. John Hall was the owner in 1816 1819, it was run by Charles Cowan and had two vats and was producing an estimated 1,500 pounds (of paper a week. William Joynson took over in 1834. He had previously been had a paper mill in Snodland. Paper had the watermark "Joynson Superfine" or "WJ&S" over "St Mary Cray Kent”. In 1839, Joynson was granted a patent for watermarking by machine. The waterwheel was of cast iron construction and may have been overshot. The mill was expanded in 1853, when a second machine was installed, enabling the steam driven mills to produce 55,000 pounds (to 66,000 pounds of paper a week. William Joynson died in 1874 and the mills were left to his two grandsons. One of them, William, drowned in 1875 leaving Edmund Hamborough Joynson as sole heir. In 1840 the Joynson Paper Mills had 74 workers, of which half were women and by 1876 had become an industrial tourist attraction due to its success. Some 700 people were employed at the mill in 1881 and E. H. Joynson took over the mill in September 1882, expanding the mill the following year with a new steam engine and machinery. Joynson produced only high class writing papers. Edmund Joynson took his son into partnership shortly before World War One. The firm became William Joynson & Son. In 1914, Joynson's paper was used in the first £1 and 10/- banknotes issued by the Bank of England. Edmund H Joynson retired in 1930 and the mills were taken over by Messrs Wiggins Teape & Co. who closed the mills in order to rebuild. 350 people were made redundant, and only 200 would be employed in the reopened factory. William Joynson's great grandson, Captain W.D.H. Joynson was the last to retain a family interest in the business. He became prominent in the local authority. The mill reopened in April 1933 as the Vegetable Parchment Mills (Delcroix) Ltd. The production of "vulcanised fibre" began c.1943. In 1963 the mill was the home of the National Paper Museum. It mill closed in 1967 and the paper museum collection was transferred to the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. It was demolished in 1977 when Millbrook Road was built. A few walls remain, but the site was largely converted to the Industrial Estate. The carpet showroom was rebuilt in 1997. Some fragments of the mill buildings remain; a few of its bricks were used in lining the river courseLime Tree house. Village bakery. This Appears to have been a timber framed jettied construction, although there were obviously alterations and additions made in the 18th and 19th; there is a cat slide roof. Notice the bakehouse and chimney just to the north of the shop. ListedThe Limes

Mountfield WayThe Mount. The high ground immediately north of Blacksmith's Lane was marked on some Ordnance Survey maps as an ancient monument called The Mount'. It could have been the site of a barrow. There are stories of fairies which came out of hillside and danced on it. It was owned by the Wotton Family in 1603.Old forge in 1654 where the Hodson brothers had their bell foundry and cast local church bells three of the bells in St. Mary Cray Church had been cast at Hodson's foundry in 1655. The iron ore came from Kevington Park. Traces in Sandway RoadMountfield Estate. A large estate with two conspicuous tower blocks which now covers the Mount and its grounds.Mount house. Owned by Lord Stanhope 17th . The great house of the Stanhopes fell into ruins in the late 18th century.St.Mary's Vicarage. The house of the Stanhope family had fallen into ruins by the late 18th. St. Mary's Vicarage was later on this site but has since been demolished

Sevenoaks WayGas works

Star Lane
A bridle path crossed the spot where the first St. Mary Cray Station was built. The path continued through the north side of the churchyard and then via Star Lane to Swanley, eventually joining the main Pilgrims Way at Otford.
Star Lane families - The local gipsy/traveller population is believed to be the largest in England. When Corke's Meadow was cleared for development, many of the displaced families were re-housed in the Star Lane area.Babbs. Premises of Walter Babbs, family builders,Cemetery chapel. The redundant cemetery Chapel of 1881 is now in the care of the local authority. There is an obelisk war memorial surmounted by a cross dedicated to those killed in the Second World War. The cemetery also contains War Graves Commission headstones. V2 6 February 1945. Then there were hits on the cemetery, at 9.48 am,St Paul's Cray library 1956 KCC St.Mary's Church. Intimidated by the railway. A Flint church with the only visible exterior is of Nash’s restorations of 1861-3, 1876, and 1895. The vestry is Nash's, with lancets and a fantastic chimney. Inside Three windows have 'Kentish' tracery - that is trefoils or quatrefoils with split-back cusps, a device favoured in the 14th. The church is early 13th with a tower and shingled spire. The font and pulpit were donated by Edmund Joynson - the old font had been a birdbath at Spring Hall but was returned here after the death of Lilian Snelling. Brasses: Richard Abery 1508 and wives - he appears to have married identical triplets; - Richard Manning 1604 and wife; Civilian; Philadelphia 1747; Benjamin Greenwood 1773 - little figures scratched rather than engraved and he wears a wig, frock-coat, and flowered waistcoat. Monument: Margaret Crewes 1602. Tablet in memory of Valentine Sparrow 1726. Bequests were left to the parish on condition that this legacy is announced every Easter Sunday morning. In the Hodsoll chapel is a squint arch and a high doorway, which would once have accessed the rood loft. Two medieval timber screens. Six bells, the first cast in 1583 locally. The most recent of the bells dates from 1913 and was a product of Gillett & Johnson's Croydon Foundry.Churchyard. Remnant of the ancient font, which was given to John Cornell Snelling by Andrew Welch, vicar of St. Mary's from 1868 to 1888. Several macabre gravestones.War memorial near the lychgate - A cross with connecting circular arches on each arm remembers the fallen servicemen.

Station Road
Station Road. This coincides with the old boundary between St. Mary Cray and St. Paul's Cray.Bridge - Knapped Flint built as part of the 1990 drainage improvement works. Has a reclaimed tablet marking the boundary between the former urban districts of Orpington and Chislehurst/Sidcup.DeneholeStation Garage, said to cover another dene hole site

Riverside Gardens
River Cray coming from spring in Priory Gardens plus a tributary

Wotton Green.
Lord Wotton's granddaughter married Lord Henry Stanhope and he then adopted the name Wotton, used here in the Mountfield estate